Wolf Man
Warning : This clause contains SPOILERS for Wolf Man ( 2025 )
AlthoughWolf Manis far from perfect , director Leigh Whannel ’s 2025 Blumhouse motion picture does apologise one egregiously overused Stephen King reference passably perfectly.2025’sWolf Mantakes the basic account of Universal ’s classical 1941 monster movie and updates it for a 21st - C audience . Christopher Abbott ’s Blake Lovell is a writer and detain - at - home father who brings his daughter Ginger and married woman Charlotte to his isolated childhood habitation after his estranged father is hold dead years after proceed missing .
En route , the menage crashes after encounter a foreign brute on the route . Blake is scratch up by the wolf , and the family takes resort in his father ’s empty planetary house , where he lead off to undergo a ghastly translation . Wolf Man ’s endingreveals the werewolf that attacked Blake was his father , although few looker are likely to be shocked by this Apocalypse . WhileWolf Man ’s change to werewolf mythologyare intriguing , the movie ’s threadbare plot makes this pull predictable , and Blake ’s deficiency of character development think of his predicament is n’t particularly compelling .
Wolf Man’s The Shining Easter Egg Explained
The Winding Mountain Road Is Straight From Kubrick’s Stephen King Adaptation
However , for all of its flaw , Wolf Mandeserves props for postulate the most overused reference toThe Shiningand using it in a thematically appropriate direction . Early on , Whannell ’s movie cuts to an overhead shot of the Lovell family car curve its sluggish way through mountain roads , the trees on either side of the route flanking the vehicle . This dead reckoning looks a draw like the famous barb of the Torrance phratry ’s fateful journey to the Overlook inThe Shining ’s opening , which might be among the most imitate shots in repulsion history .
The nip of a car snaking through wooded roads acclivitous has been used uncounted times elsewhere , appearing inBeetlejuice , Midsommar , Mandy , Us , The Boy , Bats , Fallen , idle death , Silent Hill , allow Me In , Vacancy , Malicious , Sometimes They Come Back , The Open House , Orphan , The Descent , Antichrist , 2024’sSpeaks No Evilremake , The Haunting , The Fourth Kind , Green Room , 2016’sCabin Feverremake , 2023’sUnwelcome , and too many other movies to list . The injection effectively warns looker of the isolation the quality face , but has become a cliché over the tenner .
Wolf Man’s Story Actually Justified Its The Shining Reference
Wolf Man’s Story Echoes Many of The Shining’s Themes
The image is so common thata YouTube video of " Foreboding Overhead guessing of Cars take on Long Roads in Horror Movies " was compiledby the creatorWhere Have I Seen Thisin 2020 . However , unlike a lot of movies that reference the classic , Wolf Manactually justifies this reference . Wolf ManmirrorsThe Shining ’s story of a stressed author who retreats to an stranded nation location , only for supernatural repugnance to take up his dark family history . Both Jack Torrance and Blake Lovell eventually knuckle under to personnel beyond their control and imperil their wives and child .
WhileWhannel ’s pre - Wolf ManmovieThe Invisible Manwas more explicitly concerned with themes of toxic masculinity than his 2025 effort , both moving picture practice horror as a fomite for explore the melodic theme . Blake is tear between caring for his kin as a sensitive married man and forefather and turning into the rage , animalistic monster that his disease forces him to become . Much like Jack Torrance ’s alcoholism and chronicle of maltreatment make him more vulnerable to the ghosts of Overlook , Blake ’s riotous history with his father direct him to contract the disease that dooms him .
Not All Of Wolf Man’s The Shining Borrows Work
Wolf Man’s Story Is More Rushed Than Kubrick’s Classic Horror
Blake ’s intact ill-conceived trip to his childhood home comes about due to a desire to face his demons and resolve his relationship with his late Padre . LikeThe Shining ’s Jack , Wolf Man ’s Blake is torn between the monstrous masculinity typify by his distant Father of the Church and the secure man and male parent he wants to become . That articulate , not all ofWolf Man ’s attempt to borrow from Kubrick’sThe Shiningwork so well .
Kubrick ’s motion picture takes place over a topic of weeks , so Jack ’s gradual descent into villainy feels more plausible and compelling . In dividing line , Blake ’s transmutation takes position only a few hours after his insertion , and the entire movie ’s tale occupy berth over one dark . This results in a plot that feels more rushed . Meanwhile , althoughWolf Man ’s body horroris gruesomely effective , Blake ’s condition makes the movie ’s sympathies tougher to discern . While Jack could be read as a tragical anti - villain , he is mostlyThe smooth ’s opposer .
As good as Wolf Man ’s borrows from Stephen King are , not all of them essay as successful as the opening scene ’s famous nod .
In contrast , Blake isWolf Man ’s booster until the net fifteen minutes , working tirelessly to save his house from another wolfman . The report ’s attempts to turn over into the sin of the father and unravel cycle of violence diminish apart since Blake truly is irreproachable in his fate , whereas Jack was seduced by the ghost of the Overlook . Thus , as honest asWolf Man ’s borrows from Stephen King are , not all of them show as successful as the opening prospect ’s famous nod .
